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Robert Spencer: "A Message To My Critics"

Editor's note: The following is a message Robert Spencer has written to his critics. He explains what would happen if his critics knew what he knows. (Order his new book, "The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS," HERE.)

Recently I’ve been called a “notorious Islamophobe” and an “anti-Muslim propagandist” in the Left-wing media, and while these charges aren’t new, I thought it worth noting today that they are based as much on ignorance as they are on malice. My message to my critics is this: if you knew what I know, you would agree with me.

Most people assume that the Qur’an, like the holy books of other religions, is full of lofty, high-minded teachings about the necessity to be benevolent, magnanimous, forgiving, and so on. They can’t imagine a holy book that exhorts believers to hatred and contempt of unbelievers, and that enjoins violence against them. But I’ve read the Qur’an multiple times and studied it for years, and can’t deny what I’ve found there.

Most people also assume that Muhammad, as the founder of one of the “world’s great religions,” was a Gandhiesque figure: genial, benign, wise, insightful, kind. That he was a warlord who called for the assassination of his enemies, held sex slaves, consummated a marriage with a child, and taught his followers that they would receive divine rewards for murder and plunder is simply unbelievable to some. But I’ve studied the earliest Islamic sources about Muhammad, and the evidence is unmistakable.

Most people likewise take for granted that Islamic history is full of periods in which Muslims lived in peace, harmony, and mutual respect with Jews, Christians, Hindus, and others. They cannot conceive of the possibility that Islamic history is actually one long and uninterrupted record of Muslims being violent toward non-Muslims, and oppressing them. But I’ve examined contemporary sources from every period of Islamic history, from Spain to India, including Islamic sources, and I cannot deny what they reveal.

Finally, most people take for granted that our law enforcement and intelligence authorities are on the job, working round the clock to protect us against the jihad terror threat. Unfortunately, the evidence shows that those authorities are for the most part instead denying the nature and magnitude of that threat and making common cause with organizations that are actually part of the problem, not of the solution.

And so I’m issuing a challenge to those who call me “Islamophobe” and “anti-Muslim”: show where any of my conclusions about Islam, jihad, Sharia, or Islamic history are wrong, and I will publicly retract. Or, if you cannot do that, then join me in endeavoring to preserve free societies that respect the dignity of all human beings, female as well as male, non-Muslim as well as Muslim. Most people aren’t even aware of the extent to which pro-Sharia organizations are working to subvert free societies today. But the evidence, here again, is substantial.

But of course, nary a single one of my critics will take up this challenge. Most people think that we can have a free and open public debate about these issues. They don’t realize how long and how indefatigably Leftist and Islamic supremacists have worked to stifle discussion of these issues, and to demonize those who speak about them.

Indeed, the Left and its Islamic supremacist allies today don’t deal in rational debate, but rather in name-calling and defamation designed to make people of good will shy away from standing up to what is an obvious and genuine threat. I’ve written about that as well. Read and consider. I’d be happy to discuss these matters with you.